http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- A group of academic space scientists has decided to try to open a channel with a British satellite launched in 1971, but not heard from since 1996. The team, headed by Roger Duthie, a PhD student in London, hopes to overcome many obstacles in reestablishing contact with the satellite to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its launch. http://phys.org/news234525402.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:57:04 EST news234525402 "Bring It Back," a small and inexpensive microgravity spaceflight kit, has won the do-it-yourself technology and education space competition sponsored by NASA and MAKE Magazine. http://phys.org/news225364753.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 May 2011 10:19:40 EST news225364753 The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded a $6 million grant from NASA to build a high-tech lunar dust detector for a 2011 mission to orbit the moon and conduct science investigations of the dusty lunar surface and its atmosphere. http://phys.org/news150781336.html Space & Earth Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:42:16 EST news150781336 (PhysOrg.com) -- Even some stars go ballistic, racing through interstellar space like bullets and tearing through clouds of gas. http://phys.org/news150562469.html Space & Earth Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:54:29 EST news150562469 (PhysOrg.com) -- A mysterious flash of light from somewhere near or far in the universe is still keeping astronomers in the dark long after it was first detected by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2006. It might represent an entirely new class of stellar phenomena that has previously gone undetected in the universe, say researchers. http://phys.org/news150472724.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:58:44 EST news150472724 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two new efforts have taken a famous supernova remnant from the static to the dynamic. A new movie of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows changes in time never seen before in this type of object. A separate team will also release a dramatic three-dimensional visualization of the same remnant. http://phys.org/news150460821.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:40:21 EST news150460821 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have turned to an unexpected place to study the evolution of planets -- dead stars. Observations made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal six dead "white dwarf" stars littered with the remains of shredded asteroids. This might sound pretty bleak, but it turns out the chewed-up asteroids are teaching astronomers about the building materials of planets around other stars. http://phys.org/news150394045.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:07:25 EST news150394045 (PhysOrg.com) -- Brown dwarfs, objects that are less massive than stars but larger than planets, just got more elusive, based on a study of 233 nearby multiple-star systems by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble found only two brown dwarfs as companions to normal stars. This means the so-called "brown dwarf desert" (the absence of brown dwarfs around solar-type stars) extends to the smallest stars in the universe. http://phys.org/news150388037.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:27:17 EST news150388037 The planet Jupiter gained weight in a hurry during its infancy. It had to, since the material from which it formed probably disappeared in just a few million years, according to a new study of planet formation around young stars. http://phys.org/news150383252.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:07:32 EST news150383252 From troubled beginnings nearly 18 years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized astronomy and its stunning images have stirred the imaginations of people around the globe. http://phys.org/news149951903.html Space & Earth Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:18:23 EST news149951903 (PhysOrg.com) -- The CoRoT satellite, a space mission led by the French Space Agency CNES with the participation of Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Spain and the European Space Agency, ESA (RSSD and Science programme, that includes an Italian contribution), has recently observed a star analogous to the young Sun at an age of approximately 500 million years, named CoRoTExo-2a. http://phys.org/news149264372.html Space & Earth Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:19:32 EST news149264372 (PhysOrg.com) -- Observations made by NASA instruments onboard an Air Force satellite have shown that the boundary between the Earth's upper atmosphere and space has moved to extraordinarily low altitudes. These observations were made by the Coupled Ion Neutral Dynamics Investigation (CINDI) instrument suite, which was launched aboard the U.S. Air Force's Communication/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS) satellite on April 16, 2008. http://phys.org/news148572797.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:13:17 EST news148572797 In light of recent developments that threaten to lead to the break-up of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, ESA is making daily satellite images of the ice shelf available to the public via the 'Webcam' from Space web page in order to monitor the developments as they occur. http://phys.org/news148314897.html Space & Earth Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:34:57 EST news148314897 The James Webb Space Telescope, targeted for launch in 2013, is already taking an incredible journey right here on Earth. It's zigzagging up, down, and across the US to be "spit and polished" to perfection for its lofty space mission. http://phys.org/news148229836.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:57:16 EST news148229836 A revolutionary container-less chemical reactor, pioneered by the space research team at Guigné International Ltd (GIL) in Canada with scientists at the University of Bath, has been installed on the International Space Station. The reactor, named Space-DRUMS, uses beams of sound to position chemicals in mid-air so they don't come into contact with the walls of the container. http://phys.org/news148219022.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:57:02 EST news148219022 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This is an important step along the trail of finding the chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life as we know it. http://phys.org/news148053414.html Space & Earth Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:56:54 EST news148053414 A possible UK-led Moon mission involving 'penetrator' darts that would impact into the Moon's surface will be the focus of a technical study to ascertain its feasibility, the British National Space Centre (BNSC) announced today. http://phys.org/news147706358.html Space & Earth Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:32:38 EST news147706358 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA announced Thursday that space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope is targeted to launch May 12, 2009. http://phys.org/news147695932.html Space & Earth Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:38:52 EST news147695932 (PhysOrg.com) -- Critics of the Space Program can utter a sigh of relief. Finally, an innovation with a good suds head on it. A colloborative effort between the Russian Academy of Science, Okayama University and Sopporo Breweries in Japan has developed a beer that uses 100-percent barley grown on the International Space Station. The barley was grown on the ISS during a five-month period along with lettuce, wheat and peas as part of a life-sustaining long term growing project. http://phys.org/news147622516.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:15:16 EST news147622516 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first robot that can jump like a grasshopper and roll like a ball could play a key role in future space exploration. http://phys.org/news147617121.html Electronics Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:45:21 EST news147617121 NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Explorer satellite rocketed into space in 2004 on a mission to study some of the highest-energy events in the universe. The spacecraft has detected more than 380 gamma-ray bursts, fleeting flares that likely signal the birth of a black hole in the distant universe. In that time, Swift also has observed 80 exploding stars and studied six comets. http://phys.org/news147542805.html Space & Earth Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:06:45 EST news147542805 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has signed a $141 million modification to the current International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation services planned through the spring of 2012. http://phys.org/news147539867.html Space & Earth Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:17:47 EST news147539867 (PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Colorado at Boulder payload of web-spinning spiders and wannabe butterflies delivered to the International Space Station by the space shuttle Endeavour Nov. 14 has generated a buzz among scientists, astronauts, the news media and has even spawned an Internet video set to the music of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider." http://phys.org/news146853327.html Space & Earth Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:35:27 EST news146853327 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ken Harvey, former linebacker for the Washington Redskins is trying to capture the imagination of young people by proposing a 21st century game of "Float Ball" to be played in zero-gravity. The Xtreme game of Float Ball combines elements of football and basketball with weightless players bouncing off walls, banging up against each other with the objective of moving varied colored floating balls to each end of the playing field. Extra points are given for stuffing a player carrying a designated color ball into a hoop. Initially, the game can be played in retrofitted grounded planes. The next step may include "Float Ball on the Moon" and perhaps someday a "Float Ball" stadium on Mars. Sounds extreme and perhaps lofty, but there´s science behind Harvey´s plan. http://phys.org/news146765371.html Space & Earth Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:09:31 EST news146765371 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have long puzzled over why a small, nearby, isolated galaxy is pumping out new stars faster than any galaxy in our local neighborhood. http://phys.org/news146410412.html Space & Earth Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:33:32 EST news146410412 NASA astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission will install an instrument on the International Space Station that can "smell" dangerous chemicals in the air. Designed to help protect crew members' health and safety, the experimental "ENose" will monitor the space station's environment for harmful chemicals such as ammonia, mercury, methanol and formaldehyde. http://phys.org/news146324434.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:40:34 EST news146324434 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has successfully tested the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet. http://phys.org/news146245446.html Technology Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:44:06 EST news146245446 In space, no one takes out the trash. Garbage can pile up, spoil and become a health hazard for astronauts in the cramped living quarters of a space station. http://phys.org/news146233546.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:25:46 EST news146233546 (PhysOrg.com) -- Massive energy releases occur every day in the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. Lightning may give rise to these bursts of radiation. However, unlike the well-known flashes of light and peals of thunder familiar to Earth-dwellers, these energy releases are channeled upward and can be detected only from space. Our atmosphere protects us from the effects of this radiation, but the mechanisms at work can impact Earth's upper atmosphere and its space environment. http://phys.org/news146145834.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:03:54 EST news146145834 Astronauts on extended space missions can get injured or develop diseases, necessitating immediate diagnosis and treatment. Research conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) ensuring that astronauts could accurately perform remotely-guided sonograms was published in the November/December 2008 issue of the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (published by SAGE). http://phys.org/news146134167.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:49:27 EST news146134167